[Reporter's View] The MOHW’s contradiction

Is non-face-to-face treatment really an excellent administrative example for MOHW?

The Ministry of Health and Welfare cited the 'non-face-to-face medical treatment pilot project' as an excellent administrative example last year.

 

The reason for its excellence is that the non-face-to-face treatment, which was urgently and temporarily permitted in February 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, was converted into a pilot project in June 2023, 3 years later, and has been operated stably, with the pilot project model being supplemented and developed to improve the quality of medical services for the public.

 

However, the MOHW overlooked the fact that in the process of implementing the non-face-to-face treatment pilot project, it revised and modified the scope of its application and permission several times, causing confusion among patients, medical institutions, pharmacies, and intermediary platforms.

 

In particular, the MOHW also cited the Framework Act on Health and Medical Services as it failed to secure legal grounds, such as amendments to the Medical Service Act, in the process of converting non-face-to-face medical care into a pilot project in line with the government's declaration of the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

The MOHW's rationale for the pilot project was Article 44 of the Framework Act on Health and Medical Services, which states that “the national and local governments may conduct a pilot project if necessary to implement a new health and medical care system.” With just one line of legal provision as support, the MOHW conducted a non-face-to-face treatment pilot project that breaks the principle of face-to-face medical care.

 

This is the background to the criticism that the opposition party, led by the Democratic Party of Korea, has leveled at the ruling party for forcing an executive order through politics on non-face-to-face medical care, which is directly linked to the health and lives of the people and has a significant impact on the domestic healthcare delivery system and pharmacy ecosystem.

 

In fact, the MOHW has revised the guidelines for the pilot project 5 times since June 2023, when it converted non-face-to-face treatment into a pilot project.

 

The model of the first pilot project, which divided medical institutions into clinics and hospitals and patients into returning and first-time patients, was criticized by the public as being overly complicated.

 

This was also the time when some speculated that the MOHW Minister and Deputy Minister were reprimanded because the pilot project did not fully reflect former President Suk-Yeol Yoon’s request to consider ways to foster non-face-to-face treatment as its industry.

 

Maybe due to this issue, the project for non-face-to-face treatment was revised to effectively remove the criteria on primary and follow-up visits on December 15, 2023, less than 6 months after its implementation.

 

The reason put forward for revising the pilot project was to reduce the inconvenience raised by some in society and to expand patient access to medical care.

 

Afterward, the Yoon administration’s policy on increasing the medical school capacity by 2,000 students was announced in 2024, and the scope of the pilot non-face-to-face treatment project was expanded under the pretext of “responding to the medical gap caused by the collective resignation of residents.” As a result, non-face-to-face medical care was allowed for more than the temporarily allowed period and was revised several times throughout the pilot project period, causing inconvenience to the public, medical institutions, and pharmacies as they had to constantly familiarize themselves with the changed standards and implementation plans.

 

Even amid this confusion, the MOHW itself stamped its own excellent administrative seal because it had advanced the model of the non-face-to-face treatment pilot project, which is like giving itself a report card disjunct from the social confusion it had caused.

 

Won-Joon Cho, a senior policy advisor for health and welfare from the Democratic Party of Korea, criticized the MOHW's full-scale expansion of the non-face-to-face treatment pilot project, saying, “Serious illegal activities are continuing.

 

I will bring to account the background and responsibility for the unending pilot project in the future legislative process.” This is a glimpse of how the MOHW's ‘excellent administrative activity’ evaluation on its non-face-to-face treatment pilot project may be criticized during the National Assembly's audit and the bill review for the revision of the Medical Services Act.

 

Non-face-to-face treatment is still being allowed without any legal basis.

 

As the 22nd National Assembly is about to be inaugurated in a year and the country has entered an early presidential election due to the impeachment of the president, the MOHW should not issue a report card that contrasts with public opinion and the evaluation of the opposition party, but should instead work hard to sort out the problems identified in the process of revising the guidelines for the pilot project and prepare a legislative bill that can minimize social confusion.